by Ruth Kongaika

Created on: November 10, 2009   Last Updated: November 12, 2009

Nothing could be more devastating than returning from a once-in-a-lifetime trip, than realizing that you have lost some of your digital photos. All the places you visited, the people, the unique culture, architectural wonders, floral marvels and amazing scenery are only a distant memory. With a bit of planning and consistency while on your trip, you can avoid the sinking feeling that comes with photographic data loss.

Fortunately today there are several options for storing your valuable pictures. Before your trip, purchase at least two to three memory cards for your camera and plenty of batteries. Memory cards are reusable, but they do not have a limitless capacity. It is best to have more than you need than not enough. Think about getting gigabyte rather than megabyte memory cards. Make sure you get the appropriate cards for your camera. Do not try to stuff all your pictures onto one card. There are also external storage packs that can read multiple cards and store thousands of photos available which are quite affordable.

Alternately, if you have a laptop, make sure you take it along. As soon as you return from your day's excursion, download the pictures from your camera to your computer. It is also good to make up a backup copy onto a flash drive in case something goes wrong with your computer. Before backing up the photos, it would be good to put them in a folder with the location and date indicated.

There are several online photo storage places. If you have a connection to the internet, you can back up your photos as soon as possible to one of them. Flickr, photobucket, shutterfly, snapfish, and many others are free to sign up for. It would be best to sign up before you depart on your trip. Because some of the digital photo files can be large, make sure that the storage site you sign up for accepts larger files. You may have to pay extra to store very large files on the internet like raw image formats.

You could also take blank CD/DVDs and burn your photos onto those so you have an extra copy. That way you would have some to give to family members when you return home. Most important of all, do not erase the pictures on your camera until you are sure that you have backed them up in at least two places. That way you will have many hours of reflection while viewing memories preserved.

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